The Cafe - The Cafe - The king and the people!

Bordering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the turmoil in Syria, and with internal pressure for greater reforms, how will Jordan's monarchy respond? It has a population of less than seven million people, no oil, and it relies on aid from its rich neighbours and its friends in the West. But a combination of geography and history has blessed or, depending on your perspective, cursed the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan, with a critical role in the politics of the Middle East, the Israel-Palestine conflict and, of course, the Arab Spring. The Café this week is in Amman to discover what the future holds for a country plagued by corruption and economic stagnation and with a population divided between ethnic Jordanians and marginalised Palestinians. But it is not just the Palestinians who are disgruntled. The opposition to the regime ranges from the Muslim Brotherhood, to the middle classes to the former army generals and Bedouin tribal leaders that the ruling royal family has traditionally relied on for support. Criticism of King Abdullah and his wife, the glamorous queen Rania, is now commonplace here in the capital city. But the question is: Do Jordanians want reform or a revolution?